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shaarona
11-17-2012, 05:32 AM
Pre-Islamic Middle Eastern regions were home to mysterious snake cults, according to two papers published in this month's Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy journal.

From at least 1250 B.C. until around 550 A.D., residents of what is now the Persian Gulf worshipped snakes in elaborate temple complexes that appear to have been built for this purpose, the studies reveal.

The first paper, by archaeologist Dan Potts of the University of Sydney, describes architecture and relics dating to 500 B.C. from Qalat al-Bahrain in Bahrain.

Two rooms in what is now known as the Late Dilmun Palace each contain 39 pits, some of which surround what appears to have been an altar. At least 32 of the pits housed ceramic vessels containing bones from rat snakes and sea snakes.

The remains showed no signs of mutilation.






"They were in cloth bags, now badly decomposed, and that might suggest that they had been buried alive, i.e. put into a bag, placed in a bowl, and then buried in the ground," Potts told Discovery News.

Some bowls found at the site have been identified as "wine-drinking" cups. Potts, however, does not necessarily think that wine consumption accompanied the snake rituals, which he speculates were meant to confer protection and good luck.

He described pottery decorated with snakes, snake artwork and even ancient oral traditions, such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, which originated at early Arabic sites and paid homage to snakes.

In the second paper, archaeologist Anne Benoist of the Eastern Archaeology Laboratory at the National Center for Scientific Research in France describes yet another Iron Age temple complex linked to snake cults.

Excavation of the site, at Al Bithnah in the United Arab Emirates, revealed both indoor and open-air altars, chapel-like structures, incense burners, man-made pools of water and numerous vessels and objects decorated with snakes.

Most of the snakes were depicted with triangular heads and scales, which Benoist said suggests "a viper species, which is striking, as they are venomous and therefore dangerous."

Benoist said early Middle Eastern traditions held that snake venom was viewed as "a source of power over life." Snakes are prevalent in Persian Gulf regions.

She pointed out that the association of snakes with power over life even carried over into the Old Testament. One passage describes Moses placing a bronze snake on a pole so that anyone who had been bitten by a snake would be healed upon seeing it.

The seasonal shedding of skin linked the reptile to cycles of death and rebirth, so snakes were probably also connected to fertility.

Potts thinks snake worship originated in India and spread throughout the Middle East. There is evidence for extensive trade and travel between the two areas.

As for the fate of snake cults, Benoist said later religions likely deemed them "superstitious," causing followers to practice snake veneration in secret. Eventually, she said, the cults were "overtaken by the official monotheist religion."

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/05/17/snakecult_arc.html?category=archaeology&guid=20070517120030

Many ancient cultures had snake worship.. In Greece, Malta, the Levant, Egypt and the Indus Valley..

This is from Ireland.

http://newconnexion.net/img/CelticSnake.jpg

shaarona
11-17-2012, 05:47 AM
The Serpent Code
The Tale of Serpent Worship in Ireland and Christianity's Role in its Destruction

http://newconnexion.net/articles/index.cfm/2005/11/serpent_code.html

shaarona
11-17-2012, 05:51 AM
http://www.viewzone.com/harkarkom.jpg


Scorpions and Cobras are depicted in the ancient petroglyphs
from the Negev region in Israel's Southern desert.

http://www.viewzone.com/snakex.html
Above the Scorpion, sharing the ecliptic, stands the huge shamanic figure Ophiuchus struggling with Serpens, a great snake, while attempting to crush the Scorpion-of-Death underfoot. An ancient Babylonian tablet lists a constellation Nutsirda, "Prince-of-the-Serpent," called in Semitic Namassu, "The Reptile," the Sumero-Akkadian An-u-gie "Lord-of-the-Underworld" which presided over dead bodies and disease. The Greeks called this constellation Asklepios (Aesculapius, son of Apollo), and claimed him as their God of Medicine. A sm

all surviving fragment of an Euphratean planisphere lists Sumero-Akkadian Kisal-Bat-Ala, Babylonian-Assyrian Kisallu-Iabiru, "The-Ancient-Altar-Below." This is Ara, the Altar beneath the Scorpion's tail, toward which Centaurus carries Lupus. Manilius held that Ara rising would "shape those who served in temple worship."

shaarona
11-17-2012, 06:08 AM
Hebrews, according to the OT worshipped snakes (2K 18:4 & Ez 8:10-12). There is a plethora of artifacts confirming these Biblical statements. The Migdal Synagogue stone has a snake encircling the flower of life. This stone dates from 100BC to 50AD. Snake seem to have been honored even in the time of Jesus.

On the Stone face:

2 trees of life: These are sylized images of the frankincense tree. Around the
trunks of the trees, one can see a coiling snake.

The oroubouros: the snake consuming its own tail surrounds the flower of life.

The eye and the mouth of the snake are clearly visible on the right side of the
flower.

http://tzvee.blogspot.com/2009/09/galilean-synagogue-at-migdal-excavated.html

Calypso Jones
11-17-2012, 11:09 AM
you really are a horrid person. Always doing your little dirty work. LoL

somehow...wonder how i knew, you were going to drag hebrews into this.

shaarona
11-17-2012, 11:21 AM
you really are a horrid person. Always doing your little dirty work. LoL

somehow...wonder how i knew, you were going to drag hebrews into this.

Snake cults existed all over the ME, Egypt, the Levant and the Indus Valley. If you are interested in the subject or ancient history or archeology, why would you ignore Palestine?

Chris
11-17-2012, 11:32 AM
you really are a horrid person. Always doing your little dirty work. LoL

somehow...wonder how i knew, you were going to drag hebrews into this.

Let's please stay on topic.

hanger4
11-17-2012, 11:35 AM
Hebrews, according to the OT worshipped snakes (2K 18:4 & Ez 8:10-12). There is a plethora of artifacts confirming these Biblical statements. The Migdal Synagogue stone has a snake encircling the flower of life. This stone dates from 100BC to 50AD. Snake seem to have been honored even in the time of Jesus.

On the Stone face:

2 trees of life: These are sylized images of the frankincense tree. Around the
trunks of the trees, one can see a coiling snake.

The oroubouros: the snake consuming its own tail surrounds the flower of life.

The eye and the mouth of the snake are clearly visible on the right side of the
flower.

http://tzvee.blogspot.com/2009/09/galilean-synagogue-at-migdal-excavated.html

And the punishment for this was ??

shaarona
11-17-2012, 11:35 AM
Let's please stay on topic.

One of the better know symbols is the ouroboros .. like this.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/71/Serpiente_alquimica.jpg/220px-Serpiente_alquimica.jpg

There is even a Celtic one.

shaarona
11-17-2012, 11:37 AM
And the punishment for this was ??

Remember in the OT when the Israelites are wandering in the desert and set upon by snakes?

Moses puts a bronze snake up on a pole and tells them that if they look upon the snake they will be saved from snakebite.

hanger4
11-17-2012, 11:44 AM
Remember in the OT when the Israelites are wandering in the desert and set upon by snakes?

Moses puts a bronze snake up on a pole and tells them that if they look upon the snake they will be saved from snakebite.

Your prior two Biblical passages were instances of snake worship, so I ask again, what was the punishment ??

shaarona
11-17-2012, 11:52 AM
Your prior two Biblical passages were instances of snake worship, so I ask again, what was the punishment ??

I believe Hezekiah smashed the snake symbol that Moses had made along about 2nd Kings.

Calypso Jones
11-17-2012, 11:57 AM
God told him to do that. And there was a reason. apostate.

shaarona
11-17-2012, 12:08 PM
God told him to do that. And there was a reason. apostate.

Of course there was a reason.. Read the whole chapter.